All posts tagged ‘Lovecraft Middle School’

I’ll be the first to admit that H.P. Lovecraft’s horror tales aren’t always the best fit for younger readers. While his tales mainly rely on the reader’s imagination to develop a picture of his lurking horrors, his prose style can be difficult to parse, even for experienced readers. I’m guessing that H.P.’s stories are probably not found in a lot of elementary schools, and even if they were, he’s an acquired taste. I didn’t discover him until the eighth grade, and even then many of his stories were a bit cryptic to me at that young age. Still, the universe he created is a unique one and has some great elements of horror… and for any young readers who are starting to enjoy a good spooky tale but who might not yet be ready for the full-fledged Lovecraft experience, there’s a new series of books that offer up a good bit of scare and creep without diving deep into the gore and shock that parents are probably wanting to avoid.

I wrote about the first book in the Lovecraft Middle School series, Professor Gargoyle, back in September 2012. The book introduces eleven year old Robert Arthur who has found himself relocated to a brand new school due to some redistricting in the town of Dunwich, Massachusetts. Yes, that Dunwich. There’s a lot of unusual things going on at Lovecraft Middle School — missing students, portals to strange realms, a two-headed rat, tentacles in lockers, and a professor that sprouts horns. And it’s not just the supernatural stuff that Robert is having to deal with — a bully from his previous school also got reassigned to Lovecraft and is making Robert’s life miserable. Book #1, Professor Gargoyle, is a great little 200-page read that kids will absolutely enjoy.

A week ago, I wrote up a collection of Lovecraft-related books for fans of the genre to check out. While most of the books were definitely for high school age and up, there was a YA series that I wrote briefly about that has just started up. It’s called Tales from Lovecraft Middle School, and it’s a new series of books from author Charles Gilman.

Quirk Books, the publisher, has released a new video that they’re sharing exclusively with GeekDad. I want to share that video along with some additional thoughts and comments on this series.

First, the Lovecraft universe is not often considered a safe one for young readers. While H.P. himself was careful in his language and left much of the horror to the imagination of the reader, there’s still some pretty intense subject matter within his stories. I was introduced to H.P. Lovecraft’s volume of work in eighth grade — a librarian noticed I’d finished the entire science fiction section (Asimov, Clarke, and Bradbury were heavily featured) and suggested I check out the horror section. While Stephen King’s work was just coming out and wasn’t apparently approved by the school board for middle school, someone had (properly, IMO) approved of good ol’ H.P. and his tales of Elder Gods, shapeless horrors, and ancient evils that rested beneath the ocean. I absorbed it completely, often late at night when the parents were asleep. Even recognizing it as fiction, I had some sleepless nights with a few of those tales! But it was awesome stuff, and I grew up with a solid fascination and respect for this man’s imagination and story-telling skills. Continue Reading “Lovecraft Middle School Update — Accepting New Students!” »